Aliens Acidum Sanguinem (Acid Blood)
by Bruce G McAbee
Summary: This is my opinion of where the franchise should have gone after Aliens. Weyland - Yutani receive data from Sulaco as it heads back to Earth. The data shows an impending disaster for the company, so they dispatch a ship to intercept the Sulaco and learn as much about the Aliens that they can, but this time, they know they have to destroy them. Simply, too dangerous.
1. Chapter 1

**ALIENS**

 **Acidum Sanguinem**

 **(Acid Blood)**

 **Chapter 1**

Carrie Ireland had been on the payroll of Weyland Yatani for nearly twenty years. She had made her way up the ranks and was part of the senior management looking after terra forming and off world communities.

As a member of the investigative committee looking over the Nostromo Incident and its sole survivor Ellen Ripley, she was sceptical of Ripley's story about an unknown species of alien life form killing all members of the crew and forcing her to set the Nostromo on self destruct.

However, after they lost contact with LV 426, she was playing it safe, which is why she recommended sending a squad of Colonial Marines to the new planet to ascertain what had happened. She was monitoring the progress of the Sulaco as it approached the planet and the last information she got was the drop ship had left the mother ship to descend to the planet.

There was, to her surprise no follow up communication for nearly forty eight hours until inexplicably, a request came from the settlement for the second drop ship. This she assumed could not be good news, but she hoped for the best as she waited for more information. To calm her nerves she lit another cigarette and enjoyed the nicotine fix that it provided.

Suddenly, data started coming through the link with Sulaco, the second drop ship had returned and it seems Bishop, the synthetic was interfacing with the ships computer to send details of the mission.

However what she saw was a nightmare scenario for the company. The shock of the information made her mouth open widely and caused the burning cigarette to fell to the floor.

"Son of a bitch," she said to herself as more information streamed through. She bent down and recovered her cigarette, but the information just kept getting worse.

"God damn son of a bitch!" she exclaimed and immediately pulled out Van Leuwen's card and placed it into the video phone. The phone rang a few times then the image of a half asleep Van Leuwen appeared on the screen.

"Jesus, Carrie it's two thirty in the morning what the hell is it?" he asked angrily.

"Sir, it's the Sulaco, I am receiving data on the mission from LV426 sir."

"Yes, so what's so important to wake me at this Godforsaken hour?"

"Sir, it's bad, it's very, very bad I think you should come in now, we have an absolute disaster sir, there are only three human survivors from both the colony and the marines."

"What!" he exclaimed.

"They're all dead sir, Ripley's aliens were real sir, they were all too real."

"Shit! Alright I will be in as soon as I can."

It took Van Leuwen half an hour to get there; he appeared unshaven and dishevelled looking tired and angry for being dragged into the office at this time.

"What the hell happened Carrie?" he asked as he sat down to look at the data.

"See for yourself, the whole damn colony is gone, as I said this is a disaster." She replied.

"Aww, holy shit!" he exclaimed, "we don't need this shit, not after everything was going so smoothly, alright, we'll call an emergency board meeting this afternoon, get this crap to legal first thing when they get in, let's see how deep into shit we are. Also take it over to the bio labs, I want their input on these creatures, shit, things that bleed acid, must be some bad mother fuckers. I'll be in my office, need a shower and a change, plus need to make some calls. This is going to be a bad day."

An emergency board meeting was called for at two thirty that afternoon, at each chair was a summary of the data that Carrie and Van Leuwen had been up most of the night deciphering and collating. It did not paint a pretty picture and this meeting was to determine what sort of damage control the company could initiate to save as much as it could from the upcoming lawsuits they were bound to be facing.

All ten members of the board were seated by two twenty and at two thirty Van Leuwen stood up.

"Glad you could all make it, I'm afraid as you will see from the summary Carrie and I have prepared; we are not meeting under good circumstances, to explain it better I'll hand over to Carrie now."

Van Leuwen sat down and Carrie took up the position at the head of the board table.

"Okay, as you all know, we lost contact with the colony on LV426 just on 6 months ago. You also know that we despatched a squad of Colonial Marines together with the survivor from the Nostromo Ellen Ripley and fellow board member Carter Burke to investigate, just on a month ago.

Well last night, we finally started receiving data back from the Sulaco via our synthetic Bishop on the outcome of the mission.

Now as we all know it takes nearly forty eight hours for these transmissions to reach earth, which means the Sulaco is already on her way back and we expect her back in around twenty days time.

The data from Bishop is nothing short of disastrous, the colony with the exception of one young girl, was wiped out by the Aliens that Ripley described in her hearing here seven months ago. "

"You mean those creatures were real" interrupted one of the board members.

"Yes Jack,' replied Carrie, "too real. Now as I was saying, the only other survivors of the rescue mission were Ripley and Corporal Hicks, and our synthetic, though he has been badly damaged."

"Jesus" said another board member.

"Yes a disaster, but it gets worse, the atmospheric processor exploded wiping out the entire colony, and fortunately the nest of these aliens, but we are going to have to send a cleanup crew in to neutralise the radiation from the blast.

The only good news I have is that the processor had virtually finished its job and we can start putting in plants onto LV426 as soon as possible to make it more liveable."

"Excuse me Carrie?" asked another female member.

"Yes Sue?" she replied.

"If I remember, Ripley said there was a ship with eggs in it, do we know the status of that, and who authorised someone to go look for it?"

"Good question Sue, the answer to the first part of the question and as far as we can figure out is that the ship probably survived the blast, so I would recommend straight away that we vote to send a robotic mission to LV426, find this ship, do some basic analysis on these eggs if there still there, and destroy them."

"Destroy them!" exclaimed another member.

"I'll get to that in a minute George, as for the second part of Sue's question that is the only other good bit about this scenario, it appears Carter Burke overreached his position and sent a family out to find this ship and the eggs. Carter Burke was hoping to bring one back to have it analysed by the weapons division in the hope for exclusive rights to any weapons that could be produced from it," murmur went around the boardroom, "therefore, we can pin a good deal of the blame on him, but we are still going to get hammered in lawsuits over this.

Now back to you George, the reason for destroying them, it is in fact the recommendation from the synthetic Bishop as based on his research he was able to do on the specimens the colonists had been able to obtain, he could only conclude that these organisms were genetically engineered. They already were a weapon and one the inventors I suspect lost control of.

Therefore, they should be destroyed and images of the eggs and all stages of these things life cycle be put on notice to all interstellar craft as warning to avoid at all costs. There is video from the mission that will give you no doubt as to how dangerous these creatures are. Once Bishop is back, and after our robotic mission to LV 426 is completed, I recommend that we get our weapons division to come up with a defence against these creatures just in case they ever do get to any other populated colony, let alone earth.

Now I'll hand it over to David if legal, who I briefed before, as to how we best deal with the legal fall out we are bound to experience, David."

With that Carrie returned to her seat as David started explaining what they should say to the press and their legal options.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

After the board meeting, Carrie made way down to the Bio Lab to seek out their chief bioengineer, Dr Wayne Phillips. He was in charge of their genetic engineering division which worked on plants and animals in order to adapt them quicker to the new worlds they were creating.

As Van Leuwan would say, Weyland Yutani didn't have time for evolution; they had to evolve life as quickly as possible in order to make these new worlds habitable.

It didn't take long for Carrie to find Dr Phillips.

"Dr Phillips, Wayne a minute if I can?" she asked.

Dr Phillips was in a sterile room, Carrie was outside speaking into a microphone, he acknowledged her question with an affirmative nod and made his way to communicate with her.

"Ms Ireland, interesting data you sent me."

"Yes I thought you would find it interesting, just your initial thoughts?"

"Well, no doubt, these organisms have been genetically engineered, there's no way that I can think of that a species could evolve like this. This is clearly the work of a very advanced technology and I hate to say it, but more advanced in genetics than we are. These creatures are a weapon, and I fear, a weapon they could not control."

"Do you have any initial recommendations Doctor?"

"Elimination I'm afraid, but, I do agree in sending a research vessel to investigate them assuming the alien ship they were on survived the blast."

"We do believe it has."

"Okay, I would like to go, but no humans on the surface, in fact, we will need to send basic synthetics to be our eyes and ears to experiment on ways to eliminate them should we come across this species again. The last thing we want is for a colony of them to make it to one of our major colonies or heaven forbid Earth without a way of fighting them."

"What would assume would happen if they got to Earth Doctor?"

"Extinction Carrie, ours, and by the way, anything that goes down to the surface of LV 426 is a one way trip, we need to send vehicles down that have no way of returning to the mother ship."

"Okay, I'll take this up further with the board, but I can't see any resistance to your proposal, I suggest you start preparing for a long spaceflight."

"I will, I also want to pick the scientific team, we need the best minds in various fields plus Ripley, as she has the most experience with these animals."

"Extinction you say?"

"Oh yes, all large animal life would be wiped out by this species. It will be something akin to the extinction event at the end of the Permian Period."

Carrie looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Dr Phillips sighed, "The Permian extinction event, wiped out ninety percent of all life on earth."

"Oh, I think I remember something about that, I'm only really familiar with the one that wiped out the dinosaurs."

"Most people are, anyway, I better get back to work."

"Okay, thanks Dr Phillips, as I said, I can't envisage a problem with the mission, however getting Ripley to go with you, well I highly doubt that is going to happen."

"Well, let me talk to her, maybe I could appeal to her sense of revenge, I do recall she wanted these things exterminated."

"Yes she did."

With that Carrie left the Bio Lab and made her way back to Van Leuwan's office. She saw his secretary who motioned for her to go straight in. She moved quickly to Van Leuwan's door and gave it a quick knock, from within the room came Van Leuwans's voice, "Come in."

She entered the room and noticed two of the company's high profile legal team with Van Leuwan.

"Carrie, good, we were just discussing the merits of releasing the news of LV426 before the press finds out."

"I actually think that would be wise, it would put us on the front foot." She replied.

"I agree, though one of these gentlemen believes we should hold off."

"Mr Van Leuwan," responded one of the legal counsel, "by delaying, we can formulate a better defence of our actions."

"Yes, but by delaying, we risk the chance of it leaking and then looking like we were hiding something, corporate history is full of those disastrous chapters, no we will release a statement today and deal with the damage, now Carrie, what did Dr Phillips have to say?"

"Well, he concurred that these creatures were products of genetic engineering, he also wants to have an expedition to LV426 organised as soon as possible, but he wants to take Ripley and I think we should take Bishop as well, it won't take long to repair him."

"Good luck with Ripley," replied Van Leuwan.

"That's what I said regarding Ripley, he also said that the mission is to try and find an effective way to combat these creatures and that the only thing that would be going to the surface would be synthetics, no humans or any other living creature. Plus it would be a one way trip, we would send down vehicles incapable of returning to the mother ship."

"That's a good precaution."

"Once we finish our analysis, we destroy the ship and all the eggs that are in it."

"I'll get approval for that today so we can start." Said Van Leuwan who then turned to his legal team, "see to it gentlemen."

"Yes sir," they responded.

"Van Leuwan?" started Carrie.

"Yes"

"Ripley mentioned that her original ship the Nostromo was sent there deliberately to investigate, are we investigating that?"

Van Leuwan thought for a minute, "yes, I will get our best tech guys on it, though; I would imagine those who made those orders probably covered their tracks very well. But I do know someone here who just might be able to find something, maybe if we please Ripley enough, she might go on the new mission."

"Yes, maybe," responded Carrie.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

After some further legal discussions, Van Leuwan decided that he would make a statement about the events that had happened on LV426 the next day and announced to the press that he would make an important announcement on behalf of Weyland - Yutani at ten am.

The press pool began to assemble at around 9:30am and there were not many there. Weyland - Yutani was a very large company, but their press conferences were usually just a bit of advertising about a successful new colony, or the discovery of another world to build one on.

All in all, only about ten reporters actually showed up including John Folsol, a young journalist with a worldwide news website, Earth Twenty Four. The others were low ranking journalists or reporters who may be able to report on a story that would be considered just something to fill in some time on the media websites or news channels.

Weyland - Yutani's media spokesperson approached the podium.

"Thank you ladies and gentlemen for attending today's statement, company chairman Peter Van Leuwan will make the following statement. Please note this is a statement only and Mr Van Leuwan will not be taking any questions, Mr Van Leuwan."

Van Leuwan approached the podium, shuffled some papers than began.

"Ladies and Gentleman, about six months ago the Weyland - Yutani Group happily announced the return of Ellen Ripley after an incredible fifty seven years in hyper sleep. Commander Ripley told us of a tale where her ship the Nostromo set down on what is now known as LV426 and came across an incredible creature that wiped out her crew and forced her to destroy the Nostromo. Without any evidence however, the board of Weyland - Yutani did not take her story seriously until we lost contact with the colony on LV426 sometime ago.

A platoon of Colonial Marines along with a representative of Weyland - Yutani, a synthetic and Ripley were sent to investigate, with the company believing more than likely it was a downed transmitter or other communication problems.

Unfortunately, we should have taken Ripley's story seriously, as the creatures she described were very much real and extremely dangerous. Sadly, the colony was destroyed with only one survivor, of the platoon that was sent, there was also only one survivor as well as Ripley and the synthetic, who was badly damaged.

Now I understand you have a lot of questions but I will not be answering any of them right now. Details of the Alien creature will be released to all the press as it is imperative that all commercial and military space missions be aware of these creatures and avoid them at all costs.

We have reason to believe that the source of these alien creatures is still intact and will be funding an immediate mission back to LV426 with the most stringent safety protocols to a) study these creatures and b) work out a means to be able to combat them should they be encountered anywhere else.

Once the study is finished, the source will be completely destroyed making sure none of these creatures survive.

On a final note, our genetics department believe that these creatures did not evolve naturally but that they were genetically engineered as a biological weapon and we fear that there may be other sources elsewhere.

Thank you for your time, you will all receive information portfolios as you leave."

Despite an outburst of hands and requests for questions, Van Leuwan stood away from the podium and back into the offices of Weyland - Yutani."

John Folsol leaned over to the young female reporter sitting next to him.

"Wow, we actually got a big story."

"Yeah, I know, I know, sorry I'm trying to get through to my office."

"Well, okay, but I'll tell you one thing, I'm going to be on that ship going to LV426."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

John Folsol wasted no time, he went straight to the administrative offices of Weyland Yutani and requested an immediate interview with their chief Press Liaison Officer, the receptionist said that she was not available, but he insisted and said he would wait until he could have five minutes of her time.

The receptionist rolled her eyes in frustration and just said "I'll see what I can do, please take a seat."

She got on her intercom, "Sorry Ms Lochland, it's Kylie here at the front desk, I have a young man by the name of John Folsol from Earth Twenty Four who just went to the press release and wants five minutes with you? You will, okay, I'll tell him you're on your way, thank you."

The receptionist looked at John Folsol, "Mr Folsol."

"Yes"

"Ms Lochland is on her way, you got lucky."

"Thank you, I appreciate it very much."

"You're welcome."

It took Phyllis Lochland about five minutes to get to the reception area, she immediately saw John and walked over and greeted him with a smile.

"John Folsol from Earth Twenty Four?" she said holding out her hand in a friendly manner.

John stood up and shook her hand, "Yes Ms Lochland, thank you for a few moments of your time."

"Yes, but it will have to be brief as you can imagine with the statement we just made."

"Yes, yes, I really only have one question for you?"

"And what would that be?"

"How do I get on that ship to go to LV426?"

This surprised Phyllis a little, it wasn't any of the questions she was expecting, and she admired John's forthright matter to request it.

"Actually, I'm not sure if we were going to invite any of the press along, no details have come to fruition yet."

"Yes, yes, I realise it's a little forthright, but don't you think it would be good PR to have some press along?"

"As I said, I am not sure what the makeup of the crew will be yet, you are ambitious aren't you Mr Folsol?"

"Yes Ma'am I am, and I would really like to be on that ship."

"Very well, actually you are probably correct; it would be good PR to have some press on the mission to report on it. From what I have heard, the more the public knows about these creatures, the better as it will make it easier to recognise and avoid them. Mr Folsol, I will put your name at the top of list, now if you don't mind, I do have work to do."

"No, no, not at all and thank you," said John as he stuck out his hand again and shook Ms Lochland's hand firmly before she turned and walked back to his office.

John himself headed back towards the elevator with a triumphant smile on his face and just said a big "Yes" to himself as he pressed the button for the elevator.

The next two weeks passed quickly, the story of LV426 spread like a wildfire through the press and the anticipation for the return of the Sulaco grew daily as it got closer to Earth. Unfortunately, the military put the ship under extreme quarantine meaning no one but authorised personnel would be allowed near it.

With the help of Weyland Yutani, they were able to co ordinate a plan to intercept the ship early before it reached the gateway to the solar system. They needed to do this anyway due to the loss of the crew and a solar system pilot is required to guide the ship through the solar system to its' station orbiting earth.

Carrie Ireland, Van Leuwan and Dr Phillips would also be on the ship to intercept the Sulaco so that they can talk to Ripley, Newt, Corporal Hicks and Bishop, with the view of trying to convince them to return to LV426 to study the aliens and help formulating a defence against them.

With the Sulaco still four days out, the Colonial Marines launched their recovery craft 'The Hawkwind' and made its way out to intercept the Sulaco. They had already sent a command to the Sulaco to reduce speed and wait for the Hawkwind to rendezvous with it, this would actually add a few days onto the journey of the Sulaco, but for security reasons, it was deemed necessary and would also give them time to prepare the survivors of LV426 for the bombardment they would receive from the press once they returned to Earth.

Carrie and Van Leuwan rarely ventured out into space, let alone out of earth orbit, the Hawkwind had no suspended animation chambers as it was a short range craft and it would take about five days to reach the Sulaco.

Dr Phillips had done various long term explorations into space over the last five years, he was usually sent out to examine new species discovered on new worlds and what sort of threat they would present to any new colonies Weyland Yutani planned to put there.

"Never get tired of that view" he said to Carrie pointing to the visibly shrinking Earth as they moved away from it.

"I really never want to leave it Dr Phillips," she replied.

"C'mon, Carrie, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Back there at home, I can't even smoke on this thing."

"Well your lungs will thank you for that."

"Yeah, well, don't expect me to apologise when I get cranky."

Dr Phillips just laughed, "Here, I got you some nicotine patches; they should help control your cravings."

"Thanks," she replied sarcastically.

The next few days were uneventful and a little boring on the Hawkwind as they closed in on the incoming Sulaco. The crew attempted to kill time with work, movies, music, a little recreation and conversation.

Finally, the flight crew relayed confirmation that the Sulaco had arrived at the rendezvous coordinates and that they would be docking in a little over an hour. The flight crew gave the Sulaco the signal to turn on its approach lights, which it promptly did making it visible from over ten thousand kilometres away.

Carefully they manoeuvred the Hawkwind towards the ship docking collar and after some delicate adjustments, successfully docked with the Sulaco.

The captain of the Hawkwind, John Tierny, made his way to the airlock between the two ships; he was followed by the other five Colonial Marines on board. Once the airlock light turned green they opened the two hatches and proceeded to board the Sulaco followed by Van Leuwan, Carrie and Dr Phillips.

The Sulaco only had minimal lighting on when they boarded and the temperature was a cool five degrees Celsius as it was still in cruise mode where it saved every bit of energy it could. Captain Tierny made his way to the Sulaco flight deck and together with his co pilot, Lieutenant Christy Mcaffey, he gave the ship the command to initiate all life support systems in order to prepare the ship for waking up its crew, namely Ripley, Newt, Corporal Hicks and Bishop.

It had been decided that Captain Tierny should be the one to wake up Ripley first and advise her of the news and prepare her for the fact that the representatives of Weyland Yutani were on the ship.

He made his way to the suspension tubes where the survivors of LV426 were in suspended animation. The ships' life support was now fully functioning, all the lights were on and the air was being warmed to a pleasant twenty one degrees Celsius.

Captain Tierny looked at Ripley's tube control panel and punched in the code to revive her. After about a minute the tube opened as Ripley's life functions were being bought up to normal. She gradually regained consciousness and stretched herself trying to reactivate her body to normal function. It was nothing new for her; she had been through this routine many times.

Finally she opened her eyes and allowed for the minute or two for them to adjust to the light again. Her first reaction was to look at Newt's tube and she saw that it hadn't opened and then she became aware that she wasn't alone.

"Ripley, Ripley," spoke Captain Tierney, "I'm Captain John Tierny of the Colonial Marines, we've come aboard the Sulaco to guide it back to earth."

"Uh huh," was her first tired response, "how many of you are there?"

"There are six of us Ripley, and three representatives of the board of Weyland Yutani."

Ripley immediately sat up straight and looked at Captain Tierney with venom in her eyes.

"You're shiting me, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry, but I am not shiting you."

"Is this an attempt to silence me over what happened on LV426, because.."

She was cut off in mid sentence by Van Leuwan.

"No Ripley it is not, in fact it is the opposite, we need to know exactly what happened on LV426 and we need to figure out a way to dispose of these creatures." said Van Leuwan.

"Oh my God you are shiting me" responded Ripley.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Ripley looked at Van Leuwan in disbelief that he was there as she sat on the edge of her hibernation tube.

"For Christ's Sake what are you doing here Van Leuwan, your company is responsible for all deaths on LV426 you bastard." She said with venom.

"Yes we are Ripley, though to be more to the point Carter Burke is." replied Van Leuwan.

"Right, you're telling me Carter Burke was alone in sending this little girls' family out to find that ship?"

"Actually Ripley he did, look, we're a big corporation, we're in it to make money, but we're not stupid, and sending people like that to investigate a possible dangerous alien species is very bad business. If Burke had have followed procedure, he would have put a request to the board and we would have sent robots there first to determine if the creatures were there. As it's turned out, it's going to cost us billions; we have most of the details of what happened there."

"How, how the hell do you have the details?"

"Because I monitored the Sulaco Ripley," came the voice of Carrie Ireland as she came into the room. "When you put Bishop into hibernation he interfaced with the ship's computer and the ship transmitted it back to Weyland Yutani. We also found Carter Burke's communication that he sent to the colony on a secured line, so we know just about everything that happened, except the testimony from you, young Rebecca there and Corporal Hicks. We need to get as much information about these creatures as we can."

"Why, what more do you need to know?"

"How too effectively to eliminate them," said Dr Wayne Phillips as he entered the room.

"Who the hell are you?" responded Ripley.

"Dr Wayne Phillips Ripley and it's an honour to meet you."

"Yeah right."

"No, no, you have survived two encounters with these creatures, which we have classified as Acidum Sanguinem, that's Latin for acid blood."

"Great, you have a pet name for them now."

"Actually, I was thinking of calling them Ripley Acidum Sanguinem as you are sort of the discoverer of the species, but wasn't sure if you would like that."

"Damn right I wouldn't, why would I want my name associated with a species like that."

"I understand, but the option is there for you. Anyway as I said, we need to find an efficient way of killing them because we may come across them elsewhere and space farers need to know what they are up against."

"I don't get it; Burke said they'd be worth millions to the bio weapons department..."

"Ripley" interrupted Dr Phillips, "I work in the bio weapons department, these creatures as far as I can figure out are a bio weapon, I have no doubt they were genetically engineered and probably got out of control with their creators."

"What!"

"Look we want to mount a new expedition to LV426 and I would appreciate if you would come."

"Wait, wait, wait, you want me to go out there again, no fucking way."

"Look" said Van Leuwen, "maybe you should get dressed first and let us revive the others, we have two days to get back to earth, once we've revived the others, we will discuss over a nice meal our plans, the mission is at least six months away as we have to refit this ship for it. All I ask is that you listen Ripley and then go away and think about it. If you decide not to go, then that's it. We will pick up your contract again as promised regardless, but will you listen. We fully plan on destroying that ship and all its contents once the study is done, because as you said, if one of those things get to Earth, what did you say Doctor?"

"It would be an extinction level event," spoke Dr Phillips.

Ripley's face went into a look of shock, "okay, I'll listen."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Hicks, Newt and Bishop were revived from their hyper sleep, for Hicks, it was routine, Newt took some time as it was only the second time in her life she had gone through it. There was nausea and some throwing up. But Dr Phillips helped her through it and reassured her that it would pass quickly.

Ripley made her laugh when she told her how she was sick for a week after her first experience, but that was nearly sixty five years ago.

For Bishop, they had bought a portable unit for him to be connected to; it looked like an enclosed wheelchair, which would allow him to move around on the ship until they could get him back to Weyland Yutani where they could replace his body.

After about an hour, Newt was feeling much better and was suddenly very hungry so they all gathered at the Sulaco's mess for what was for Ripley, Hicks and Newt was breakfast.

Ripley decided to ask Van Leuwan what they wanted to do.

"So Van Leuwan, what are you planning on LV 426?"

"Well, Ripley, I'll let Dr Phillips explain it to you."

"What does he mean about planning for LV426 Ripley?" asked Hicks

"First of all Corporal Hicks and Newt is it?"

"Affirmative" responded Newt more interested in her meal.

"Good, we are planning on returning to LV426 in around six months time to learn more about the creatures you encountered, no one, and I mean no one will be going down to the surface, it will all be done by robots, and it will be a one way ticket down."

Hicks smiled, "Well, I'm glad of that, you don't want to mess with these things, I have never seen anything like them, they're basically unstoppable."

"We know, Corporal Hicks," responded Doctor Phillips, "but we have to find a way to stop them effectively, because chances are we are going to encounter them again, and if one of these damn things get's to Earth, well we're facing an extinction level event. Once our research is done, we destroy the ship and everything in it; we can't afford to leave a trace."

"Wow, said Hicks, I thought your pal Burke had it all worked out to turn these things into weapons."

"Corporal Hicks," spoke up Van Leuwan, "trust me, if Burke had survived this, he'd be in the ships brig right now, he completely by passed company protocols, if we had taken Ripley seriously, and I admit, we didn't and that was a big mistake, we would had the colonists send out probes to find that ship and study its contents before anyone went out there. As we would have found the eggs, the ship would have been put under strict quarantine until we could have established the risk to the colonists. Trust me; we would have blown that ship up once we established how deadly these things are."

"Also Corporal Hicks," continued Doctor Phillips, "we don't have to make these things weapons; they already are a biological weapon. That's would be your conclusion as well Bishop?"

"Yes, Doctor Phillips, yes, I do believe these creatures are a product of genetic engineering, by the way I do like the Latin name." replied Bishop.

"Thanks, I'm proud of it to."

"I'm just glad you didn't use my name for them." Spoke Ripley sarcastically.

"What," said Bishop?

"I was thinking of calling them Ripley Acidum Sanguinem, but I thought I better run it by Ripley first." answered Dr Phillips

Bishop and Hicks looked at Ripley who just shrugged her shoulders and continued eating.

"Okay then" said Hicks, "I'm in the Marines for another year, I wish to volunteer for the mission."

"Hicks" said Ripley

"Ripley, I want these mothers dead, I want to learn how to kill them without them killing a whole squad, I want to make sure they don't kill another person."

Ripley sort of shrugged her shoulders; she knew she had little choice because she knew Hicks was right.

"Damn it Hicks, what choice do I have now, I'll have to go."

"Ripley" screamed Newt, "you can't go."

"Yes I do Newt, I have to make sure these things never hurt anyone else, but you'll be staying on earth, besides I need someone to look after Jonesy."

"Who's Jonesy?"

"He's my cat from the Nostromo, the oldest cat in history I imagine."

"Ripley, "spoke up Van Leuwan, "don't worry, we'll make sure Newt's looked after and we can help with the adoption, which I assume you would want to do."

"Well, of course, but what if she has family?"

"I want to stay with you Ripley" protested Newt, "I don't want to go anywhere else."

"Don't worry Newt," spoke up Van Leuwan, "we'll see to it that it happens."

"Van Leuwan?" enquired Ripley with scepticism.

"Ripley, we're a massive corporation with very good lawyers, I know you find it hard to believe that we are doing this out of the goodness of our heart, and you're right, but these creatures are bad business, good business is devising a way to eliminate them, good business, is keeping you, the person with the most experience with them happy in order to help us achieve this goal. So, trust me when I say it will be done."

Ripley was stunned and just nodded, after all, what could she say to it, Van Leuwan actually made sense.

"Just one more point before we finish up Ripley," spoke Carrie, "we are investigating your claims that the Nostromo was sent to LV426 on company orders, one of our specialists, and he is good, is trying to see if he can discover any evidence of deleted files in our records."

"Shit, Ma'am, those records are nearly sixty years old, what damn chance has he got?"

"As I said Ripley, he's damn good, very damn good and we would like to know because it may shed some light on these animals and why we knew about them sixty years ago and not now. Even you have to admit it doesn't add up."

"Well your right there," responded Ripley.

"Okay then," piped in Van Leuwan, "we still have a two day journey back to Earth, I suggest we make the most of that time."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

As they left the table Dr Phillips turned to Ripley, "can I just have a moment, Ripley?" he asked.

Ripley motioned to Newt to go to Hicks, which she did happily and there Hicks picked her up and smiled saying "Hey, how you doing?" and walked away with her.

"Sure Dr Phillips, what do you want to know?"

"Look, I know this is a big ask, and I can understand if you say no, but we are going to have to ask Newt what happened, how it happened and what she can recall?"

"You're nuts Phillips," responded Ripley angrily.

"Wait, wait, please hear me out, all the logs and everything can just give us data, but the best data comes from eye witnesses, always has been."

"Phillips, if you expect me to make that little girl relive that horror, then as I said you're nuts, now I've agreed to go back, because I want these motherfuckers dead, extinct wiped out of existence, but Newt has suffered enough, no more!"

"Ripley," suddenly came the little voice of Newt who had come back after hearing Ripley's raised voice.

"Newt, I thought I said to stay with Corporal Hicks."

"Yes, but I heard you shouting, and using bad words."

"Aww Newt, I'm sorry, sometimes I get angry."

"It's okay Ripley; I heard what the man wanted."

"Newt," started Dr Phillips, "I am not going to force you, you don't have to, but if you think you can and when you can, we would really appreciate if you could tell us what happened, not just that the monsters killed everyone but as much detail as you can, and I am so sorry for you and your family, but if you can remember as it happened and how you survived. You are one remarkable little girl for that, let me tell you now, probably the bravest person I know. But it is important that we know because, we need to be able to stop this ever happening again, and you can help."

"You don't have to do this Newt if you don't want to." reinforced Ripley.

"Ripley," started Newt in a soft voice, "I don't, but I know I have to, you said it yourself with those bad words, we have to kill these things and they killed my Mommy and Daddy and Timmy, I have to help Ripley, even if it means bringing back the nightmares, because if I don't help, there will be more nightmares."

"You're very brave," said Ripley kneeling down to her, "if you want to then I am not going to stop you Newt, but I'll be right here, if you feel you can't go on, then we'll stop okay?"

"Okay," she replied.

"How old are you Newt?" asked Doctor Phillips.

"I'm almost seven," replied Newt.

"Well, as I said Newt, you are probably the bravest person I have ever come across, now let's find somewhere comfortable, because I will have to tape what you say, is that okay?"

"Okay."

They moved into a private cubicle with a table and some chairs. Doctor Phillips invited Corporal Hicks and Bishop to be there to help support Newt with her statement as he knew it would be traumatic, but he couldn't help but admire the bravery of this young girl and all that she had been through. After all, he had seen some of the video of the marine mission and he had an idea of just how ruthless and efficient the Acid Bloods were. This young girl, managed to survive weeks on her own and avoid detection by them. There may be something in that that he could use in that he could use.

After about fifteen minutes, all was prepared, Doctor Phillips had his recording devices set up, Newt, Ripley, Hicks and Bishop were sitting, or in Bishop's case stationary, around the table. Van Leuwan and Carrie plus the other marines had their video link monitors on.

"Okay," he said, "Newt, whenever you're ready, tell us to your best memory what happened to the colony from the beginning?"

Ripley looked at Newt with a concerned but supportive look and gave her a little squeeze of reassurance.

"Well, it all started when Daddy got a message from that man Burke." started Newt.

"Wait," interrupted Ripley," how did you know it was Burke Newt?"

"I was there when Daddy received the video message on the secret line they had, I recognised him when I saw him with you."

"What Burke got your parents to do other things?"

"Yes, my Daddy said it was good having a contact in up, up, upper management to give us exclusive rights to things, I think he said."

"Van Leuwan!" screamed Ripley into the intercom, "what the hell?"

"Ripley,' he replied, "I promise we'll investigate when we get back to earth."

"Okay Newt," said Doctor Phillips, "continue."

"Well, Mr Burke said that he wanted my daddy to take a trip to a place on the planet that was a long way away from Hadley's Hope and that it had the possibility of being the biggest payday ever.

After the call Daddy turned to me and asked if I would like to go for a long drive, I said yes because it was nice to get away, especially as Mommy and Timmy were going to come to."

"Newt" asked Van Leuwan over the intercom, "do you remember how long it took you to get there?"

"A long time, hours, Timmy and I got quite bored, we'd watched three movies on our way out there, but we probably could have watched more, I even fell asleep for a while, but we finally got to where we were going and daddy said look at that kids. It was a big space ship sort of shaped like a U, Mommy and Daddy were really excited and called back to home, some stuff about a claim and I remember saying this was the big one."

Newt sniffed a bit, as the emotion began to well up.

"Newt?" asked Ripley with concern, "you don't have to continue if you don't want to."

Newt looked up at Ripley, "I don't, but I have to," she said as the tears started, "Mommy and Daddy left and they were gone for a long time, until they suddenly came back and Daddy...Daddy.. Daddy had that thing on his face!" she screamed with emotion and buried her head into Ripley's chest sobbing.

"It's okay Newt, we can stop if you want?" said a sympathetic Doctor Phillips.

But Newt, composed herself, she had been through a hell like no other person on earth had been through and it had hardened her somewhat.

"No," she said quietly, "no I can continue."

She took some deep breaths, looked up lovingly at Ripley, sighed, and then continued.

"They sent a flying ambulance which rushed us all back home and my Daddy went straight into the hospital, where they tried to save him, Timmy and I and a few friends could see inside from the vents we were able to crawl into and saw them try to remove the thing on Daddy's face, but it leaked something that burnt through the floor. They then put my Daddy in a special room where no one could get in except the very special doctors.

Then not long afterwards, Mommy said Daddy was going to be better because the thing came off his face and died, she was going to take Timmy and I down to see him, when her friend Francis, raced up to her and said that something had burst out of Daddy's chest and he had died." The tears started to well up again, "They, they said my Daddy was dead, Ripley?" she said turning to her, "I loved my Daddy" to which she started sobbing into Ripley's chest again, with Ripley holding her tightly and comforting her.

"It's okay Newt, its okay," whispered Ripley to her stroking her hair, "you don't have to go on."

But once again, Newt regained her composure as she looked up at Ripley, "I do Ripley."

Newt then turned back to Dr Phillips, took some deep breaths, and then continued.

"They buried my Daddy a few days later, but there was no sign of the creature that killed him, it had completely disappeared. Everything was fine for a while, some people believed that maybe it had died somewhere out in the open, but to be safe, the big ship we found was put off limits. But then a few weeks later over at that procs, prosces, processor plant, someone went down to work in the bottom of it and never came back.

They searched and searched, but he was never found and the fear was, the creature that had killed my Daddy had struck again, so they started sending people over there with guns.

It wasn't until a week or two later, three people came back from the processor plant saying they had been attacked and that two had been taken by the animal that had killed my Daddy except it was much bigger and that there was an even bigger one now laying eggs. My Mommy told them they were the same eggs she saw in the U shaped ship."

Bishop interrupted, "the initial creature must have gone back to the ship and retrieved an egg to become the Queen, sorry Newt, continue."

"The attacks then became more frequent, "continued Newt, "they managed to kill some, but they always took more people away, my friends were taken once and we were getting so scared, that's when I discovered my hiding place and I only let Timmy know about it.

They did manage to save a couple of people who had those face things attached to them, but I heard they died when they pulled them off their face, but I didn't see it. I remember them building the barricades to try and stop them coming and setting traps, but it didn't work, they just kept coming, until the last time before the soldiers came."

Newt paused, again the emotion building in her young body, "I...I...ran when they came, I told Timmy to follow me to our hiding place, I wanted to tell Mommy, but she was too busy fighting and screaming for me to run. I...I..I thought Timmy was behind me, I thought he followed me, but he wasn't," now the tears were uncontrollable, "they took him! They took Mommy! They took everyone, Ripley, they took everyone!" she screamed in uncontrollable tears, "They took everyone! They took everyone, theyyyy tooook everyone!" she screamed again as she buried herself into Ripley's chest again.

"Okay, Newt, no more, you were so brave," said Dr Phillips.

Even Van Leuwan and Carrie were moved by Newt's description with Van Leuwan turning to Carrie, "We have to destroy these things; thank God that son of a bitch Burke didn't succeed!"

"Absolutely" replied Carrie.

Meanwhile, Newt continued to cry as Hicks came over to help comfort her as did Bishop.

"You're one brave little girl Newt," said Hicks in a comforting voice, "don't you worry, were going to destroy all of them, every single last one."

Newt looked up with her tear stained face. "Promise"

"Yes, I promise," responded Hicks.

"I promise too," said Bishop smiling.

"So do I," spoke Dr Phillips.

"Ripley?" asked Newt.

"Don't worry Newt; I'll make sure they keep their promise."

"I know you will, I love you Ripley," she said still sobbing a little.

This just made Ripley hug her even more tightly, "I love you to Newt."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

It took about an hour for Newt to settle down after her traumatic reliving of the events that doomed Hadleys' Hope. Ripley, Hicks and Bishop comforted her and soon she was back to be being the precocious almost seven year old she was, asking questions and wondering how long until they get back to Earth.

Ripley then sought out Van Leuwan and Carrie Ireland because she was a little angry having put Newt through what she just went through. It didn't take her long to find them.

"Van Leuwan, Ms Ireland a word please?" she asked.

Van Leuwan sighed, "Certainly, "then motioned Ripley to come into a private cubicle with her and Carrie Ireland.

They sat down and Van Leuwan, expectantly said, "what's on your mind Ripley?"

"What's on my mind, first of all, what Newt just went through?"

"Ripley," interrupted Van Leuwan, "she volunteered, and we constantly told her that she could stop if it was too hard for her, quite frankly, both Carrie and I have a deep admiration for what she did, she was very brave and extremely helpful."

"How the hell was that helpful?" barked Ripley in reply.

"Ripley an eye witness account can tell us so much more, plus, we do intend to use the video of her statement to convey our message of how dangerous these creatures are."

"What! No way will I allow that!"

"I am sorry, but you have no say in it, Newt was and still is part of the company, plus Ripley, I understand where you're coming from, but, we can put pictures out, and warnings and well it's like those safety procedures before a flight, when was the last time you paid attention to them. Here, though, we have a girl reliving the most terrifying moments anyone could imagine and seeing her telling her story will make more people sit up and take notice and will help save lives."

Ripley couldn't actually respond to this, because she sort of knew that Van Leuwan was right, so she went to another topic. "What about Carter Burke?"

"What about him Ripley? He's dead."

"His contact with Newt's family, isn't that?"

Ripley was cut off by Van Leuwan.

"Ripley, we all have people on the ground in these colonies trying to find us some exclusive deals."

"What! What the hell!"

"I'm amazed you're so surprise, I mean a couple of mine have me associated with some very lucrative diamond and gold mines on other worlds. Carrie what about you?"

"Oh yes," responded Carrie, "I have one that mines, oh, I don't know the technical term, but a rich deposit of the stuff that helps fuels these star ships."

"You see Ripley," continued Van Leuwan to a dumbfounded Ripley, "we all have them, it's a sort of win, win situation, everyone makes money and everyone is happy. We give these guys some exclusive information and data and they go find it for them and us."

"Jesus, so Burke was just doing what you did?" retorted Ripley,

"No, no he wasn't Ripley," responded Carrie, "when it comes to biological, there are strict guidelines and we follow them, Burke didn't and we have seen the result, it's not the first time something like this happened. "

"What, are you telling me.." started Ripley.

"Not with these creatures Ripley, but one of our competitors, sent them bankrupt and into oblivion forty odd years ago, Chinese company, Xin Shijie Qixidi, which translates into New World Habitat. They found what they thought was an ideal planet for settlement, no dangerous animal or plant life and they rushed it without a proper biological assessment."

"What happened?" asked Ripley.

"Over five thousand settlers, of which there was no survivors within a year, a then unknown pathogen in the atmosphere, harmless to the indigenous life, deadly to anything from earth. Since then a much more thorough and analysis approach is required of all new off worlds before settlement. LV 426 didn't fall under that category because it's atmosphere and environment was thought not able to support life. But it was a good candidate for terraforming, which is what we specialise in.

Burke should have followed protocols, with these creatures, if he had, we wouldn't be in this mess now and if he had survived, trust me, both myself and Van Leuwan would have thrown him into the brig ourselves."

"Ripley," continued Van Leuwan, "in the end, Weyland Yutani is about making money and pleasing our shareholders, we are not about making stupid greedy decisions like Burke did to get in front, finding precious metals, or gems or fuel does no harm to anyone, even biological discoveries can be of benefit, have you seen the Bellus Creatura's back on Earth?"

"Bellus Creatura?" asked Ripley, "oh wait, those little furry things people keep as pets?"

"Yes those," replied Van Leuwan, "Bellus Creatura, or Cute Creature, we found those on, where was that again?"

"BG197 Van Leuwan," answered Carrie.

"Yes, yes, we did a complete and I mean complete biological study on those things, perfectly harmless and they make incredible and profitable pets. But they got nowhere near Earth until those tests were done."

"Also, Ripley, we have another world, oh it will never be settled, far too dangerous, but it's a big ecological tourist destination, for both the curious and for scientists to study. Dr Phillips has travelled there a couple of times, you should ask him? But getting back to why it is uninhabitable is simply the wildlife is too big, too vicious and really too wild, akin to Earth when the dinosaurs were around, though they are still trying to figure out if these things are anything similar to our dinosaurs.

In many ways it's like that novel and movie genre from about 200 years ago come to life, now what were they called again.."

"Jurassic something I think," Said Van Leuwan, "so, does that about cover everything for you Ripley?"

Ripley didn't answer but sort of nodded.

"Well, if you do think of anything else, feel free to ask," continued Van Leuwan, "look, as I said, we are still about making money so don't think we are doing this solely out of the goodness of our heart, we are doing what is best for business. Remember at our hearing where you told us grabbing our papers that if one of those things got to Earth that it would be worthless, well you were right, I concede, but hell Ripley, we want those bits of paper to be worth a lot of something, hell you're worth a lot of something and that's why we want you on the mission back to LV426, because a system of disposing of these creatures is going to be worth a lot of money."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Ripley left her meeting with Van Leuwan and Carrie not sure of what to think. On one hand this was still the same company that totally didn't believe her true account of what happened to the Nostromo. On the other hand, she was hearing things she wanted to hear.

She came to the unfortunate conclusion that they were mostly right and she could only agree with them. But, they were still two days out from Earth, so she knew she had to keep herself busy and that she would have to give her account of what happened on LV426 and at least they would believe her this time.

She caught Carrie coming out of the cubicle and spoke up, "Ms Fisher, what of the Nostromo?"

"As I said Ripley, I have someone, who is very good at this sort of thing, working on those files right now. To be honest with you, I hope he finds something, I'm sorry we didn't take you more seriously."

"What about Burke, family?"

"Burke's dead, if he wasn't, as Van Leuwan said; he'd be in the brig and looking at a lifetime in prison on Earth. I know you have one of those small company apartments, well the one he would have been spending his time in wouldn't have been half that size, which reminds me, I will organise better living quarters for you and Rebecca when we get back to Earth."

"Thank you, but you didn't answer regarding Burke's family?"

"Oh yes, well, I'm not sure, don't worry, they won't suffer other than knowing what he did, however, all of his assets will be seized and sold off to help compensate family members of the victims of this mess. Now excuse me, but I have to right up the report regarding young Rebecca's testimony, gutsy kid."

"Okay, thanks for listening." responded Ripley, "this is going to be a long two days" she said as she made her way back to Newt and Hicks.

As was expected, the rest of the trip was a little tedious and boring for the crew and survivors on the Sulaco. Ripley and Hicks both gave their testimonies to the events of what happened on LV426, which left even a battle hardened Hicks exhausted and a little emotional because he lost his entire squad to the aliens back there.

One of the questions that did come up was Lieutenant Gorman being in command. Van Leuwan and Carrie both testified that Weyland Yutani wanted a more experienced commander for the squad, but the Colonial Marines didn't view the mission as a high priority but compromised having Gorman, who had performed admirably in his one actual drop and all the simulated drops, with the seasoned veteran Sergeant Apone.

The Colonial Marines had had considerable experience with what the grunts use to like to call; bug hunts, and thought this was going to be no different. The Marines would simply shoot up a lot of alien animals that may have been a little difficult for the colonists to handle, but not so a fully armed squad of Marines.

Nothing had prepared them for the Acid Bloods, which with Bishops' testimony and his research he did on the specimens they found at LV426, were determined to be a genetically created biological weapon of mass destruction.

This of course raised the question as to why a species would create such a thing and how did it get out of control. Questions which they knew they would probably never find an answer unless they happen to come into contact with the species that actually created them.

Which in itself wasn't a very much sort after experience as a species capable of creating the Acid Bloods is probably capable of much worse things. They were either a species bent on conquest, or out of desperation to survive, created a doomsday weapon.

Of course, the real worry was if these things were elsewhere in known space, or unknown space as the human race pushed the frontier further and further out, that eventually, there would be contact with them again. As it was, Ripley's mission on the Nostromo was one of those missions that helped push the frontier out in search of resources. In fact, few would venture that far out at back then because of the time it would take to cover such distances.

Of course that was nearly sixty years ago. Improvements in propulsion systems and spacecraft design had reduced the time from months and years to weeks to reach these worlds. In fact some of the new generation of craft would reach LV426 in half the time it had taken the Sulaco.

Twenty hours out from Earth, Van Leuwan happily announced that the military had agreed to let Weyland Yutani use the Sulaco for the return mission in approximately six months time, and while it is in dry dock being fitted with the necessary scientific equipment to help study the Acid Bloods. It would also have a major engine upgrade which would reduce the travel time to LV426 by seven days.

As with their departure from Earth, the Sulaco did not pass any of the outer planets on its way back to Earth, simply because it was approaching the Earth from a forty five degree angle to the plane of the solar system. However, at about ten hours out of Earth, they came to one of the Solar System Gateways.

The two Colonial Marines, who were the pilot and co pilot of the Hawkwind, went back to their ship as they would follow the Sulaco into space dock. A crew of four Colonial Marines boarded the Sulaco to pilot it into space dock.

It took about forty five minutes for the transfer to happen and the two ships resumed their courses.

Ripley took Newt to the window facing forward and pointed a faint blue dot that was emerging.

"Newt, that's Earth"

Newt squinted for a moment and then replied, "It's blue, it's pretty."

For Newt, there was no memory of Earth as when her family left for LV426, she was only one year old so she watched with fascination as the blue dot became brighter than bigger, though she occasionally lost interest and disappeared for an hour or two at a time, until the Earth was clearly visible as was the moon.

Ripley and Hicks stood by her as they watched home get bigger and bigger in the window.

"Ripley, it's so blue and green."

"I know Newt, its home from now on, our home, you me and Jonesy."

"What about me?" asked Hicks, as his relationship with Ripley had grown a bit since they were awakened from their hyper sleep.

"Well, we'll have to see about that?" Said Ripley with a smile, "that's still in the development stage."

Hicks snickered, 'I hope so."

The Sulaco approached the space dock and from the forward window they could see the tight security that had been placed by the military on their dock number. No one other than military and top representatives from Weyland Yutani were allowed anywhere near the ship or its occupants.

Van Leuwan approached Ripley, Hicks and Newt as they watched the ship dock.

"Welcome home guys," he said, "now we have secured the dock and we will be taking you out of here after the appropriate medical checkups, so as to avoid the press for now."

"For now?" replied Ripley.

"Look Ripley, sooner or later, all of you will have to make statements whether you like it or not. I personally would prefer you didn't, but public opinion and awareness is huge on this. We want people to understand just how dangerous these things are. Yes that will help us make more money when we develop an effective defence against these things. However, it will also mean more money because it will greatly reduce the risk of those things getting here, which I think we can both agree that that would be very bad."

"Yes we can Van Leuwan, but don't expect me to be all glowing about Weyland Yutani."

"I wouldn't expect anything less, Ripley."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

They were finally off the Sulaco, but still in space as they had to endure another thirty six hours of quarantine in the medical facility of the Colonial Marines Spaceport. Newt did not enjoy the prodding and poking from the medical staff, but Ripley made sure she was there and went through the same tests at the same time with her.

The medical staff knew of what Ripley, Newt and Hicks had been through, but were trained to leave their curiosity outside of the workplace. They would have to wait like everyone else for the answers as to what happened on LV426, which had become the major news story for the world since it was announced.

It was the biggest off world disaster since the Xin Shijie Qixadi disaster of forty odd years ago. Images of the Acid Bloods had been circulated and warnings had been sent, which included images of the eggs to try and ensure no one interacted with them if they happened to encounter them elsewhere in space.

Finally the thirty six hours was over, Hicks went with his fellow Colonial Marines to his battalions headquarters on Earth. Newt and Ripley were met by a young woman in her early thirties.

"Ellen Ripley, Rebecca Jorden? She asked.

"It's Newt,' responded a defiant Newt.

"Okay, Newt, hi, I'm Karen Rigby from Weyland Yutani, I'm here to escort you to your new home."

"That's nice Karen," answered Ripley, "lead the way."

They left their medical room on the Space port and made their way to docking port forty six where a Weyland Yutani private shuttle was waiting for them.

"Oh this is nice," commented Ripley.

"Yes, Mr Van Leuwan wanted to insure your privacy, no one has been advised of your new address."

"Well someone will notice me once I go out to get some food."

"Not so Ripley, we have suppressed all your images since the story broke, again to help protect you until your press conference."

"Press conference?" asked Ripley.

"Yes in ten days time, you, Corporal Hicks and Bishop who by then should be repaired."

"What if I don't want to participate?"

"Well you will have to take that up with Mr Van Leuwan, I'm sorry, now please strap yourselves in."

The shuttle left the dock and made the forty five minute descent to Weyland Yutani's private landing strip. From there, Ripley and Newt were whisked to a modern looking apartment complex and led to their new apartment. Ripley opened the door and her eyes went wide open, the apartment was more than three times the size of her old cubicle. All her belongings were here as well as some very nice new equipment.

"Mr Van Leuwan hopes you like it?" asked Karen.

"Yes, yes it's very nice, thank you, wow." responded a spellbound Ripley.

"Oh, and here's someone else to greet you." said Karen.

An attendant walked in with a small animal carry cage and after they closed the front door opened it and slowly and cautiously came out a ginger cat.

"Jonesy," said Ripley happily, "Jonesy come here boy."

Jones sniffed Ripley's outstretched hand then reacted as Ripley started to stroke his neck and let out a small meow before moving towards Ripley happily looking for the affection he had missed.

"Jonesy," cooed Ripley, "say hello to Newt. Newt this is Jonesy."

Newt bent down and slowly put her hand to Jones, then started to pet him. Jones responded to Newt's affection and moved to Newt for more, which in turn made Newt look up at Ripley with the happiest smile Ripley had ever seen from her.

"He's wonderful Ripley," she said smiling, but then, as cats will do, Jones left the two of them to go explore his new apartment.

"I'll leave you two then," said Karen, "someone will be buy in a couple of days in regards to the press conference and what sort of work you would want to do until the mission back to LV426."

"Okay," said Ripley, she didn't want to fight, she just wanted to enjoy the next few hours and days with Newt, "thanks for everything, hope to see you again soon."

With that, Karen Rigby and the attendant left the apartment and Ripley and Newt started what they hoped would be something resembling a normal life for a little while.

The next few days were simply wonderful for Ripley and Newt, the bond between them grew stronger and stronger. On the third day they got a surprise visit from Corporal Hicks who had a twenty four hour furlough from the Marines and they made the most of it, even buying a Newt a replacement for her doll Casey.

For Newt, she was able to be a child again and not have to think about the horrors she endured on LV426. Much to Ripley's surprise, Jones really bonded to Newt, deciding that he wanted to sleep on her bed during the night, which clearly helped Newt sleep securely and reduce her nightmares.

As for Ripley, Newt had replaced the tragedy of her long hyper sleep from the Nostromo and missing the life of her daughter Amy. It gave her a new sense of life and purpose.

On the fifth day back, Ripley received a request from Carrie to come down to Weyland Yutani to discuss a few matters, she wouldn't elaborate what, but advised that a vehicle had been sent to her apartment block and it would be good if she could get there as soon as possible.

It took Ripley about three quarters of an hour to get there and she was whisked up to Carrie's office in due haste.

"Ripley so good to see you again," greeted Carrie, "please take a seat."

"Well, I wouldn't say it's nice, but thank you." she replied.

"I imagine so, anyway, we have a couple of things to discuss, first the good news," she said handing Ripley an envelope.

"These are your formal adoption papers for Newt, please feel free to look over them, I think you will find them all in order, by all means take them home and discuss them with Newt, but once you sign them she will become your legally adopted daughter."

"What!" said Ripley flabbergasted and a little emotional with happiness.

"Told you we had good lawyers."

"Thank you,"

"You're welcome, okay envelope number two, your flight status fully restored and you will have your choice of flight assignments."

"You're kidding," said Ripley even more flabbergasted as she took the paper out of the envelope, "I don't know what to say, but thank you again, in regards to flight assignments, I don't want anything that will take me too far away from Newt."

"I can understand that, we are always in need of pilots around the solar system, so nothing there will keep away more than a couple of days."

"Thank you again, there has to be a catch doesn't there?"

"Not at the moment," smiled Carrie, "maybe I'll think of something," she paused then smiled, "just kidding."

Ripley sort of chuckled back, but she didn't completely trust the company.

"Okay number three," Carrie lent down to her intercom, "Sue, can you send Dr Nakama in now?"

"Yes ma'am," came the reply

In walked a mid twenties Japanese man in a simple suit and wearing glasses.

"Ripley, I'd like you to meet Dr Gyo Nakama, he's the computer genius I was telling you about on the Sulaco, seems he's had some success regarding your information about the Nostromo."

"He has, Dr Nakama, what did you find?" asked Ripley.

"Ms Ireland, Ripley yes I did find something, and trust me it was very well hidden, in some of the Nostromo's computers routine programs, I mean this thing was buried, but I was able to find it, because that is exactly where I would bury it.

"So what did you find?" requested Ripley again urgently.

"Special Order 937: Priority One – ensure return of organism for analysis. All other considerations secondary. Crew expendable."

Ripley's face went white and Carrie's jaw dropped as this was the first time she had heard this.

"Holy shit," said Carrie, "My God, I have to bring this up with the board immediately."

Ripley, growing angry, "I read that order before Ash attacked me, this company sent me and my crew out there to die!"

"Ripley, not this company, that company fifty seven years ago, I am shocked to, and we would bring charges against anyone who made such an order if they were still alive."

"And you wonder why I don't trust this fucking company!" screamed Ripley again.

"Ripley," spoke Dr Nakama calmly, "I can understand, but trust me, they would have never found this message if it wasn't for me and there's more I found."

"There's more!" screamed Ripley.

"Yes, I was able to back check through company records after reviewing your testimony here regarding the Nostromo. Now if I am right, you were able to decipher a bit of the message and said that it seemed like a warning to you?"

"Yes that's correct, though it was in an Alien language, but it seemed to have a similar pattern to a warning buoy." said a slightly calmer Ripley.

"Well you were right; it was a warning in an alien language that I have never come across before, but I was able to translate it using our computers here and it adds to your mystery. Seems a ship that was out where the Nostromo was a year before picked up the signal, but was unable to investigate, so unfortunately, the Nostromo was sent out there to not only collect raw materials, but investigate what was programmed into the Nostromo's computer as a distress beacon. I can only conclude that they must have translated it back then."

"Damn it!" said Ripley with tears from anger starting to well in her eyes.

"The message read, warning, do not approach, bio engineered alien life form weapon of mass destruction, extremely hazardous created by The Engineers. David Prometheus."

"What the hell," said Carrie," Prometheus."

"What is the Prometheus?" asked Ripley.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Before Carrie even answered Ripley she contacted Van Leuwan immediately.

"Van Leuwan, you need to come down here immediately, sorry it won't wait." She said through the intercom.

Ripley then asked again, "What is the Prometheus?"

"I'll answer what I know Ripley once Van Leuwan is here, it is a bit of a big deal."

"Dr Nakama?" questioned Ripley.

"Sorry, I'm in the dark too," he replied.

It took Van Leuwan less than ten minutes to get there; when he arrived he wasn't terribly happy.

"What is it Carrie, oh Ripley, Dr Nakama," he blurted out.

"Dr Nakama, show him what you found" said Carrie.

Dr Nakama handed Van Leuwan his tablet with the information on it and Van Leuwan's face went a little white.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed.

"Okay will someone please tell me what's going on!" barked Ripley getting annoyed, "I lost my entire crew fifty seven years ago because this dick of a company wanted these creatures!"

"Jesus," said Van Leuwan trying to calm down, "The Prometheus disappeared over ninety years ago, it was sent out by the old man Peter Weyland and no one knows why, except that he was obsessed, especially in his later years, with the meaning of life and the origins of the human species. There were rumours that he believed that our species was engineered by an alien race."

"What!" said Ripley,"for God's sake, a rich Looney conspiracy theorists, great."

"No, no Ripley"responded Van Leuwan, "he was a brilliant man and he apparently funded all these archaeological digs all over the world, but Prometheus was kept a secret, no one knows where it went and it never came back."

"I wonder whose David?" asked Carrie.

"I remember he was a remarkable android that Weyland had built at the time, way ahead of its time, but what is he doing sending a message from that ship on LV426, oh we have got to get this mission out there as quickly as possible."

Van Leuwan, then looked at Ripley, who still had an angry look on her face.

"Oh Ripley, yes the first part of the message, I'm sorry, that should have never have happened, Peter Jennings was in charge back then and yes he was not the cleanest CEO we have had. You would be pleased to know that he did end up in jail, because you weren't the only crew he put in danger. Corners were cut and lives were lost. As I told you on the ship, yes, we are about making money, but minimising risk is good business and way more profitable."

"Well your apology doesn't bring back my crewmates Van Leuwan," spat Ripley, "they were damn good people!"

"Yes, I imagine they were, look I'll have legal look into this and see what can be done for their families, but this, this information does not leave this office until we know more on LV426 agreed." ordered Van Leuwan.

Ripley looked at him with a very disapproving look.

"Ripley, we just approved your adoption with Newt and got you reinstated, you don't want to jeopardise that, now once we know more, we will let people know, we will keep you in the loop, but until then, it's a secret, agreed!"

Ripley could only do one thing and nod in agreement.

Time went by slowly at first for Ripley, there was this undercarriage of anger because she knew that the company fifty seven years ago were happy to sacrifice the crew for the aliens because they thought they were worth more to them as a bio weapon.

Plus, despite assurances from Carrie and Van Leuwan, Burke had shown that that thinking hadn't completely died as he thought of his own pocket instead of the lives of colonists on LV426. She was seeing the company's efforts to be open about it through the press, though there was a fair bit, and not to unreasonable, deflection to Carter Burke for not following protocols.

She participated in the press conference which was a very uncomfortable one and half hours for her, but she was happy that Newt wasn't involved and she kept the revelations about the Nostromo to herself.

Plus it was good to see Bishop in one piece again with a new body and she was glad he was on the mission back to LV426. His testimony at the press conference was chilling on what he had been able to decipher about the Acid Bloods as everyone referred to them now. Dr Phillips also spoke at the conference and that he had shared the information with other experts in their fields regarding these creatures in a joint effort to formulate a defence against them.

As time went on, Ripley and Newt's life became more normal. Ripley started to get flight missions to Mars, Europa, the Moon, none that kept her away from Newt any longer than one day. Plus, as promised she was kept in the loop as Dr Nakama discovered bits and pieces of the past from the company archives.

The signal was originally picked up by a scout ship, that didn't have enough fuel to go and investigate. Upon their return they reported the signal to the company who deciphered it and despite the warning, wanted to investigate for two reasons.

One, it might shed some light on the mystery of the Prometheus, but two, more importantly, bio weapons were hugely profitable and they were extremely interested in obtaining a specimen so the Nostromo's mission was planned.

After all, the Nostromo was just a tug, sent out to bring back a massive shipment of ore back to the earth, the crew stock standard for such a mission except for Ash, who was placed aboard at the last minute.

Dr Nakama, also discovered that Ash had been specially programmed to over ride the general rules for robotics about allowing a human being to be hurt, as the company was tinkering with creating combat androids for the military at the time. That the ship's computer had been given a directive to wake Ash after they had all gone into cryo-sleep once they had set course back to Earth in order to change the course of the Nostromo so that it would pass close enough to the LV426 system to intercept the signal.

This, just made Ripley even more angry at how dispensable their lives were, but she did see that those in the loop of this information were also a little shocked, though not all that surprised, because they knew that Peter Jennings virtually bankrupted the company with his overzealous attempts for profit at any cost which led to criminal investigations, most of the board ending up in jail and legal bills that seemed never ending.

What saved the company was a string of off world settlements that came on line and became extremely successful. It also became evident that Dr Nakama was able to find this information because of the corruption enquiries didn't give them time to delete the files, just cleverly bury them.

To help fill in the time and coincide with a week's shore leave Hicks got from the Marines, the company covered the cost of a trip to Fiji for the three of them to help take their minds off the upcoming mission, the ongoing investigation into everything regarding LV426 and just some general relaxation.

The trip did further the bond between Ripley and Hicks as well as Newt, who was enjoying going back to school again, though they kept her true identity a bit of secret so as the other kids wouldn't annoy her too much.

A week before the mission was to get on the way; Ripley and Newt were relaxing in their apartment when someone knocked on the door. Ripley opened the door to see a young dark haired man not exactly dressed impeccably and she just knew he was reporter.

"Yes can I help you?" she asked.

"Ellen Ripley I presume?" he asked back.

"Correct."

"Hi, I'm John Fosol of Earth Twenty Four, but before you close the door, I am not here as a reporter, I'm here because I'm on the mission to LV426 and just want some insight as to what to expect."

"Oh, okay, would you like to come in?"

"Thank you."

Ripley showed John to the dinner table.

"Newt, this is John.."

"Folsol, John Folsol, hi Newt, I'm glad to meet you."

"Hello," responded Newt in an uninterested voice.

"So, Mr Folsol, what would you want to know?"

"First of all, John will be fine, but as you have been into deep space a few times and as the furthest I've been is to the moon, what's it like, I'm..I'm just a little nervous."

"Well, from what I hear, we won't be sleeping this time which is a pity because it is rather boring, but with the new improved propulsion system, food and water providers, they don't need to put us to sleep. The artificial gravity can take some getting used to so don't be surprised if you're a little sick for the first couple of days."

"Oh, okay, and LV426?"

"Well, we're not going down to the surface, so all it will be is a big ball below us, it's actually a moon orbiting a rather large gas giant, that's about all I can tell you."

"It rained a lot," added Newt.

"Excuse me?" enquired John to Newt.

"It rained, and it rained and it rained, that's all it seemed to do, my Daddy said that was normal while they were fixing it, he said that some lakes were forming not far from where we were and that they would be seas with fish in them one day."

"Oh, okay, so I look forward to a boring flight and not a great deal to see when we get there."

"Well, until they go into that ship and start studying the Acid Bloods, then hopefully you will feel the same way Newt and I feel about them."

"And what's that?"

"That we drive them to extinction, before they get a chance to do the same to us."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

John Folsol decided not to push his luck with Ripley so he got up from the table, turned to Ripley and began, "Well thanks for the insight, I appreciate you seeing me, but I would like a small favour?"

"And what would that be John?" said Ripley looking at him a little sarcastically.

"An exclusive interview next week before we head off to LV426, that's all, after all, you have survived these things twice."

"Well there isn't much that I can add to what I have already said, but okay, I'll give you that interview if it helps your career."

"Actually yes, and thank you, and thank you Newt, hope to see you again?"

Newt just looked up at him, not really interested, "Bye."

"Okay then I best be off, thanks Ripley again."

"Yeah you're welcome; I'll see you next week."

With that, John left their apartment, again feeling pretty good with himself over getting the interview, but a little scared of his upcoming flight and hoping he hadn't talked himself into something he couldn't handle.

Meanwhile back in the apartment Ripley sat back down at the table with Newt to continue their meal.

"He's going to be sick all the way out there Ripley," remarked Newt in a very matter of fact voice for a seven year old.

Ripley laughed, "Yes, I think you're right about that Newt."

The following week passed to quickly for both Ripley and Newt, but the time came when they had to say goodbye. Weyland Yutani had arranged for someone both Ripley and Newt trusted to look after her while Ripley was away.

They also promised Ripley that they would arrange for Ripley to return early if the reason arose for her to leave the expedition early. They also had set up in Ripley's quarters on the Sulaco a direct link between Newt and Ripley, even though it would take a couple of days for their messages to travel the distance between LV426 and Earth.

At exactly eleven am, a pair of Colonial Marines arrived at Ripley's door to escort her to the Sulaco. There were tears as she said goodbye to Newt and Jones, plus their friend who was going to look after them, but the schedule didn't allow for a long goodbye and Ripley found herself whisked away with some haste to Weyland Yutani's private spaceport where a military transport was waiting for them.

To Ripley's surprise they weren't going through the space dock, but going directly to the Sulaco. She was the last of the Weyland Yutani employees to transfer to the Sulaco. On board with her was the pool of journalists who were going for the ride, John Folsol she knew, Tanya Middlecrest, who she had seen on the World Network and Stefan Edelwiest from the Human Network, who she didn't know at all.

They also had their own support group of a cameraman, audio technician and lighting, three each to be precise.

"So John," Ripley said looking at him, "you up for this?"

"I think so," he began to reply when suddenly the transport went airborne and began to rocket into orbit.

John almost lost his stomach as he wasn't use to the rapid acceleration of a military vessel. Ripley just smiled at him then said, "Once you get your stomach back and we're on the Sulaco I'll give you that interview I promised."

John shook his slightly nauseated head in agreement and then tried to regain his composure then looked out the window to watch the ground rapidly fall away as the vehicle climbed higher into the sky. It didn't take long to see the sky turn from blue to black and the curvature of the earth become evident. However, there was something else some of the representatives of the press weren't ready for.

Over the intercom came the pilot, "okay folks, hang on to your items as these small craft don't have artificial gravity and you're going to experience zero G for a little while."

For some, it was too much and the vomit bags came out almost straight away, but much to Ripley's admiration, John Folsol survived zero G admirably. As for her, she was a space veteran; she had done her share of extra vehicular activity during her trips into space for various reasons. She actually enjoyed the freedom of zero G.

Soon the Sulaco came into view and its size apparent, for John Folsol, he had never been on a ship this big, all he had ever been on were the transports to the moon, which weren't anywhere near the size of the Sulaco.

"Wow," he said, "big ship, we got two weeks on it before we get to LV426?"

"Yeah," responded Tanya, "cryo freeze would have been better, what the hell we suppose to do for two weeks, hell we won't even see any of the planets on the way out because of the angle of departure from the solar system."

"Oh" responded John with an air of disappointment.

"I'm sure the company and the marines will keep you folks busy" said Ripley, "Actually, after sleeping for fifty seven years, staying awake for two weeks sounds wonderful."

"I can imagine, "responded Stefan, "actually Ripley, from what I've heard what you have been through, I'm really surprised your going back."

"So am I," replied Ripley, "but I have some unfinished business out there, you guys have only seen the video of these things, I've experienced them and trust me, none of you want to."

"Yeah, but none of us are allowed down on the surface.." started Tanya.

"And be thankful!" screamed Ripley, "None of you want to go down to the surface while those things are there! How many people do they have to kill for people to realise how dangerous they are! Geez, they've told you that these things are a biological weapon of mass destruction, probably wiped out their creators as well, if any of you go down there, wouldn't matter if there was a return ship, you would not be coming back!"

They all looked at Ripley stunned, by the rage on her face and it became very evident that she was right because they had read her history, seen the video, especially Newt's.

"Well,' said John, "maybe once it's all over and their all dead, then we can go down to the surface on a future mission."

"Let's just get this one completed successfully, said Ripley in reply.

The ship finally docked with the Sulaco and mercifully for those who weren't enjoying the zero G effect, the artificial gravitational field of the Sulaco embraced the transport ship.

As they disembarked, Ripley was greeted by Hicks who had been on board for the last week making sure everything was ready, he had been promoted to sergeant for this mission which meant he got to boss some people around. Van Leuwan and Carrie Ireland were there as well supervising final preparations for the Sulaco's departure.

However, they would be leaving with the shuttle as they would be monitoring the mission from the headquarters of Weyland Yutani.

Hicks escorted Ripley to her quarters, which was a simple cubicle with her own private entertainment system and bathroom.

"You see," he said, "I was able to secure you luxury accommodation for the trip."

"Well, it's better than that cold tube we had before," she smiled back.

"Actually, it's even better than mine," Hicks smiled back, "but I'm in the Marines and I'm use to it, there will be a briefing not long after we are on our way so I'll see you then, sorry got to get back to work we leave in an hour."

"Okay, Sergeant Hicks," she smiled, "see you then."

As soon as Hicks left, she stored her stuff and wanted to take a brief look around the ship to see the changes that had been made, she knew where she roughly was, was where the hibernation beds were when last time they were here, now they were about ten cubicles for herself and other passengers, but before she left, John Folsol appeared at her door with his crew.

"Well Ripley" he started, "how about that interview you promised."

She looked at him with annoyed eyes but then sighed, "Yeah I suppose so, I did make you a promise didn't I."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

John Folsol's team called in to Earth Twenty Four to advise that they were about to start the interview with Ripley and within a minute they were ready to go as the sound technician counted down from five.

"Good afternoon Earth Twenty Four, this is John Folsol live on the Colonial Marine vessel the Sulaco, today we have an exclusive interview with the survivor of the Nostromo and the LV426 incidents, Flight Officer Ellen Ripley, good afternoon Ripley first question, can you tell us how you feel about going back to LV426 for a third time?"

Ripley paused for a second, then decided to play along, "Well, to be honest a little nervous, but at least this time, I know that we have a common ambition and that is to exterminate these creatures once and for all."

"Yes, from what I've seen of these creatures, extinction is a pretty good option, however, you have had the terrifying experience of being up close and personal with these animals and have seen them in every stage of their life cycle, would you like to describe as best you can what that was like?"

"John, terrifying, I saw my crew member Kane be bought back to the Nostromo with a face hugger attached to his face, that's the parasite that lays the alien embryo into the victims chest," Ripley tried to stay matter of fact, she didn't want to become emotional, "a few hours later the face hugger died, but when we went to eat, the embryo burst out of his chest killing Kane in the most horrible way you can imagine. The same would have gone for all the colonists on LV426; it's a sight I never ever want to see again.

The sons of bitches grow very rapidly reaching full maturity in a matter of hours and they are fairly unstoppable, they just seek out more victims. The one on the Nostromo wiped out my crew in less than a day; I was able to blow it out the airlock door in the life boat."

"And your encounter with them on LV426?" asked John.

"The Marines were totally unprepared for them, I told Gorman the Lieutenant to pull the squad as soon as they discovered that one colonist at the point when the embryo burst from her chest. But it was all too late, most were lost in that exchange. Even the sentry guns which must have wiped out over half the colony didn't stop them. They are programmed to kill and survive, or as our Science Officer on the Nostromo bragged, they are the perfect killing machine.

Then there's the Queen, she is big, bad and an absolute bitch, I was able to use my skills on one of loaders to force her out of the airlock. Once a Queen is established, she's an egg laying machine, just egg after egg, after egg. She can also control the hive somehow, the worker aliens respond to her commands. So as you can see, these creatures are the worst nightmare you can come across and we can't let a single one get anywhere near any of our colonies let alone Earth."

With that, Ripley gave John the look that the interview was over and John was smart enough not to push it.

"Okay, Flight Officer Ripley, thank you for that, I am sure we will get more details from you and other members on this mission as we get closer to LV426. For viewers who are interested, some images of Ripley's battle with the Queen Acid Blood, which happened right here on this ship are available on our website, this is John Folsol for Earth Twenty Four saying I'll see you tomorrow for our daily report on the mission to LV426."

With that, the cameraman and sound technician turned their equipment off, they looked at Ripley and said a simple thanks, then went off to their bunks. John turned to Ripley and began.

"I was hoping for a little more detail, but that was good."

"That's all I'm going to say John for now, trust me there is a lot more, but circumstances as they are, I am unwilling to go into any further detail." replied Ripley.

"I understand do I get another exclusive when you can?" he said hopefully.

"Yeah, I suppose so, I like your determination, but don't get to ambitious, Carter Burke did and killed nearly two hundred people as a result."

"I'll keep that in mind," he replied.

John left Ripley then a little disappointed with the interview, it wasn't exactly what he was hoping for, a little bit more detail and another five minutes of what happened would have been good. As for Ripley, she really didn't want to go into too much detail, too many bad memories.

Ripley spent the next half hour organising her cubicle on the ship. She then went for a stroll around the ship to try and familiarise herself with it and not to try and relive her moments the last time she was here. But, she couldn't help it when she came to the hanger where she fought the Queen Acid Blood.

There were different and smaller craft there then the drop ships that were there last time, she didn't recognise them. Nor were there any M577 APC's there so it looked like Weyland Yutani were being honest in saying that anything that was going down to the surface wasn't coming back.

Then the announcement came over the intercom from the ships' captain for everyone to strap themselves in as they were about to depart. Ripley had her own chair in her cubicle which included a window. She also had a monitor where she could get different angles of the ships' departure on. She put her monitor so she could watch the earth and five minutes after she had secured herself in her seat, she felt the vibration going through the ships as the massive engines came to life.

Then came the sensation that she actually enjoyed, the slight G Force as the ship began its acceleration, slowly at first as there were speed restrictions in near Earth orbit, but on her monitor she could see the Earth begin to shrink from view, slowly at first, but then quite visibly as they built up to break away speed then beyond. The only other body in the solar system they would come within visual of was the moon, which they passed it at some twenty five thousand miles some twenty minutes after departure.

There speed continued to build until they reached the free to navigate waypoint, about twenty minutes after passing the moon, where the pilots opened up the engine to near full speed, and the ship accelerated rapidly to its cruising speed and rapidly departed the solar system.

Once cruise speed was reached, the captain announced that all were free to move around again, however, all were expected to attend a full briefing in the main recreation room on level 2. Ripley was happy to attend as she was curious about how they were going to study and then destroy the creatures she feared, plus learn about what some of the vehicles in the hangar bay were. However, the one thing she hoped she wouldn't have to do was to talk again about her experiences, she was just over it and wanted to leave it behind.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The total crew compliment for the Sulaco on this mission was thirty two. Ripley joined them in the recreation room for the briefing; the first person she came across was Bishop.

"Ripley," he smiled, "good to see you again."

"Same here Bishop," she smiled back, "good to see you're in one piece again."

"How's Newt?" he asked.

"She's really good, really bonded with Jonesy my cat."

"That's great, has she had trouble with her experience?"

"Yes, but it has been getting better and she's starting to live a normal life, I'm calling her later, would you like to talk to her?"

"Yes, yes I would, very much so."

"Okay then."

Suddenly, Dr Phillips walked to the podium at the front of the recreation room.

"Excuse me," he said, "excuse me everyone! Can we all please take our seats?"

The conversations amongst the crew stopped and everyone took their seats.

"Thank you," said Dr Phillips, "I am Dr Wayne Phillips and I will be conducting this little briefing so as to bring you all up to speed regarding this mission, first of all welcome aboard the Sulaco, our estimated travel time to LV426 is fourteen days, six hours and twenty three minutes.

As you have noticed, there are no hibernation beds as we don't need them, though I imagine some here would prefer, but we have enough food, water and air for well over a year and we have arranged for supply ships to come every three months during the mission.

How long the mission will be, we don't know depends on how quickly we get the data we need to better understand these animals that we call Acid Bloods and how to best combat them should we encounter them again.

Now our team of head researchers here are Dr Victor Charelli Exo Biologist, Dr Victor Cheng, Biological Weapons Expert, Dr Raymond Musan, Microbiologist, Dr Stephanie Wilson, another Exo Biologist and Dr Anna Volstron, Major in Chemistry. Now, I know some of you here, especially Ripley, maybe concerned why Dr Cheng is here. Don't worry, his speciality is developing counter measures for biological weapons and as we are dealing with what we believe is a biological weapon, it just seemed logical to have a biological weapons expert with us.

We also have our two artificial persons in Bishop, who you all know was on the last ill fated expedition to LV426 and had a too little close an encounter with the Queen Acid Blood, but he is fully functioning and his experience will be invaluable. The other artificial person is Beck and he is the latest model of android intelligence.

Now, we also have Sergeant Dwayne Hicks who also survived the LV426 mission and will have invaluable information and experience in fighting these things."

Dr Phillips paused, "Then of course there is Flight Lieutenant Ellen Ripley from both the Nostromo and the previous mission to LV426. If you haven't seen the video of her fighting the Acid Blood Queen with the loader, I suggest you watch it, no one has had more experience with these things then she has and we thank her for coming on this expedition, hopefully this will be her last experience with them.

Now, let me make this clear, no one and I mean no one is going down to the surface, if any one wants an exclusive it will be a one way trip down there with no retrieval until the cleanup crews turn up long after we have destroyed the animals . As you may have notice, we have descent vehicles only that will be carrying these."

Dr Phillips bought up a three d image of a robot.

"These are the C31 robots, in many ways they are the same as our artificial persons, but not fleshed out, they have the ability to think for themselves and do whatever we program them to do. Also we have these," another three d hologram appeared of a weird looking creature that basically had a mouth and looked like a living torso. "These are our biologicals and we have twenty of them.

It is our hope that when we place these near an egg, it will trigger a response and we place others throughout and near the ship so that we can get a functioning colony. We don't believe they will attack our C31's as they will have no life signature and the creatures should ignore them.

Now in closing, we have also discovered something fantastic recently regarding why the Nostromo was sent to LV426 in the first place and I have been authorised to release this information now. The Nostromo was sent due to a signal that had been picked up by a scout craft that had passed LV426 a few years earlier. Unfortunately, the company originally disguised what this signal was because they wanted to get one of these creatures for the bio weapons division.

As we know now, it was very fortunate that Ripley insured that this did not happen. However, analysis of this message was discovered by one of our top computer scientists Dr Nakama hidden deep within the company's data base. The message was a warning from the android known as David of the lost ship Prometheus. We are hoping we may find something there of him to and solve a ninety plus year mystery of what happened to that ship."

A murmur went through the people gathered there and then Dr Phillips said, "any questions?"

Just about everyone's hand in the room went up.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

The two week trip to LV426 was largely uneventful; there were drills, seminars, tests of all the equipment, some fun for those onboard as they tried to fill in the time. There wasn't much to look at outside the windows of the ship because travelling at this speed everything was just black with blurry points of lights.

Even when they looked at the course to LV426 and it showed they were passing near a star system, it was still so far away and the star was just another brighter point of light.

Ripley, however, found herself actually enjoying the flight. She was spending time with Hicks and Bishop and found some of the equipment and how it worked fascinating. She also was starting to believe that the company would keep their word this time and destroy the creatures she first came in contact with now fifty eight years ago.

The best part is that she didn't spend a whole lot of her time in a hibernation chamber, even though she was use to it, the fact she spent fifty seven years in one made her a little paranoid about going into one again. She didn't let it show, nor told anyone, part of her tough exterior armour.

The food was passable on the flight and no one, including the leaders of the expedition got any privileged benefits. Ripley even got to spend a bit of time in pilot's seat as a bonus for her coming along the mission. Dr Phillips wanted her to be satisfied and happy as he saw her as an important tool for the success of the mission.

Funnily, the one thing she spent more time then she expected looking at on her cubicle monitor was the screen that advised everyone where the ship was and how long until they reach their destination. For Ripley, the sooner they got there and achieved their goals, the sooner she got to go home to Newt and resume their lives. As far as Ripley was concerned, Newt was her daughter and she had grown to love her very much.

As promised, she sent as many messages to Newt as she could and eagerly awaited her reply. Though as the distance grew between them, the time it took for the messages to travel between the ship and earth grew to minutes, hours then to a day and eventually it would be two days.

As per all space faring ships, the clock on the ship was set to Greenwich Mean Time and it was at around five am that Ripley, who was awake, felt the deceleration as they approached the system LV426 was in. Suddenly out of her window, the stars went from blurs of light, to fixed pinpoints of light. The constellations as was known on Earth no longer applied due to the distance from Earth.

Ripley could see LV426's star that the ringed planet that it orbited revolved around at about a distance of one hundred and twenty million miles. This meant that it was warm enough for liquid water to exist, though it was on average around five degrees cooler than Earth. Eventually with terra forming it would produce distinctive polar ice caps and it rotated on about a ten degree axis with the planet holding it steady.

The gas giants' immense magnetic field protected LV426's atmosphere from its stars' solar wind which is why it was chosen for terra forming. It would be a few hours before the planet came into sight as they were just entering the fifteen planet system, LV 426's planet being the fourth closest to its' star.

LV426 was one of eight moons around its planet, which Ripley had only recently discovered was called Calpamos and was by far the biggest. It was about eighty five percent the size of earth and due to its proximity to the planet, the gravitational force kept LV426 geologically active. There were volcanoes and some quakes on its surface, though the location of the settlement and atmosphere processor was carefully chosen in a very inactive area.

Most of the activity occurred at the equator of the moon where the stresses were at their greatest. Of course orbiting around a gas giant presented some unique lighting for the moon. On regular basis the moon would pass through Calpamos's shadow which meant for about six hours on that day, it was dark as the planet eclipsed the star.

LV426 revolved on its axis just on twenty three hours, and revolved around its star around three hundred and ninety days give or take a few hours. Through the viewer forward, Ripley could now see Calpamos shining like the brightest star now and began wondering why the hell she was back.

Soon, LV426 appeared as a faint point of light near Calpamos. Before long the other seven moons became visible and Calpamos's rings became apparent. She had approached this system before as the pilot of the Nostromo and a feeling of dread began to grow in her. Last time they approached they were in hyper sleep, being revived just as they were entering orbit around LV426.

"Attention, attention all crew members, we will be entering into orbit around LV426 within twenty minutes," came the announcement over the PA system. An air of excitement swept over the ship after two weeks of finding ways to pass the time.

Ripley, quickly found Hicks and Bishop as she felt she should share the experience of returning with them.

"How you feeling Ripley?" asked Hicks.

"A little dread, a little." She responded.

"Reasonable" said Bishop, "even I'm feeling a little nervous, last time I was here I got ripped in apart."

"Hey will you look at that." said Hicks.

As LV426 came more visible, its appearance had changed a little. Instead of being completely covered in dull clouds, there was now in places scattered white clouds and quite clearly visible on the surface were patches of blue where the water from the constant rain had pooled into sizeable lakes if not now seas.

"Wow the atmospheric processor has done its job" remarked Bishop, "this appears to have happened quickly. The alien ship should be safe though, it was on relatively high ground according to the co ordinates."

"Hey, look at the poles, there's clearly snow there." said Ripley.

"You're right," replied Bishop, "we knew it would end up with polar caps."

"Enjoying the view?" said Dr Phillips as he approached the group.

"Wayne," replied Ripley, "it's a lot different from six months ago."

"Yes, yes, better than we expected, which is good, because, once we have finished with the Acid Bloods, our robots will have a couple of thousand seeds to plant and nurture to try and get LV426 green and ready for the sort of animal life we want for a colony."

Ripley gave him a questioning look.

"Ripley, we will make sure that nothing of the Acid Bloods are left, as I said, we are here to make their species extinct, at least here, and to make sure we can do the same anywhere else we encounter them."

"I hope so, Wayne, I certainly hope so, because if it isn't, you don't want to be messing with me."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The Sulaco settled into a three hundred and fifty kilometre orbit above LV426. From this height, the places where the water had collected into lakes and small seas were clearly visible through the broken clouds.

There were also waterways like rivers and streams visible feeding these growing bodies of water on the surface, however, it was on the third orbit when they passed over where Hadley's Hope that the destruction of the explosion caused by the reactors on Atmosphere Processing Plant became clearly visible.

"Oh my God," said Ripley on seeing the massive crater and scaring on the ground.

"That crater is at least ten kilometres wide," said Bishop, "the colony would have been vaporised."

"Yeah, lucky we got out there, thanks Bishop," said Ripley smiling at him.

"Just doing my job." He replied.

"Let's get some breakfast," suggested Ripley.

"That's a great idea," said Dr Phillips, "we have a bit of work to do today, are you guys ready?"

"Definitely" replied Ripley.

"Yeah, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we go home." said Hicks with a touch of determination.

"I'm ready," responded Bishop.

The four of them made their way to the ships Mess Hall to find most everybody who was on the ship were there to, all of them looking at the monitors or their personal devices that were linked to the ships computer so they could view images of the surface.

"In case you're interested Ripley, we'll be flying over the co ordinates of the alien ship on our fifth orbit in just over an hour's time, we can magnify the image so we can have a bit of a look at it."

Ripley just nodded in response, the thought of seeing the image of that ship suddenly seemed to haunt her as she remembered all too well what happened last time she saw it on a monitor.

"When will be sending the C41's down Dr Phillips?" asked Bishop.

"All going well, later today, but we have a bit of work to do and I don't want to rush things, we need to get this right the first time. The Sulaco has the new improved engines on it, our resupply ships don't, the first one left a week after we did and is still three weeks out from us."

The next few hours were frantic as the crew programmed, checked and double checked all systems on the drop ships and the C41's. The two drop ships were significantly smaller than the ones that were on the Sulaco when Ripley, Hicks and Bishop were last here. First of all there was no need for life support systems or a cockpit as both Bishop and Beck would be remotely piloting the ships down to the surface.

Once on the surface, the biologicals would be animated so they could do their job of attracting the alien larvae as the face hugger stage was now known as so as to implant the alien embryo into them. The biologicals were specifically grown for these sorts of experiments instead of animals as it was more ethical and they can be modified for specific tests.

Of course the first thing that had to be done before the drop ships were sent down was to lock their communication systems onto the geostationary satellites that were placed around LV426 when Hadley's Hope settlement was established so that the Sulaco would never be out of contact with the drop ships and C41 robots.

Ripley watched the organised chaos of the launch bay from a safe vantage point, this time she didn't feel like a third wheel, nor was there any requirement for her to jump into a loader to help out. For Ripley, after her last experience of being in a loader, she wasn't keen to get in one again for some time.

At about three pm ship time, all was ready and with the time on LV426, the time was right to launch as they would reach the alien ships' coordinates just after sunrise on LV426. There wouldn't be much of a night for the next few nights as Calpanos will be in full view and the reflective light from the giant planet would produce enough light that was equivalent to early twilight on earth.

"We will be launching ten minutes" came the announcement over the PA system, "all personnel please leave the launching bay immediately."

Ripley and everyone else left the loading bay, once everyone had left, the bulkhead doors shut and everyone went to the monitors to watch the descent live from the nose of the drop ships. Bishop and Beck took up their positions inside the virtual cockpits and the screens in front of them came on giving them a 3D visual as if they were actually in the cockpit of the drop ships.

Suddenly the alarms went on in the ship as the first drop ship was moved into position above the launch bay doors, the air was pumped out of the launch bay and the inner doors were opened and the ship lowered into position. The inner doors closed above the ship and the outer doors opened.

"Three, two, one, launch" announced the Sulaco's pilot and the first ship, piloted by Bishop began its journey to the surface of LV426. Bishop gave its main engines a quick burst and angled it towards the atmosphere.

"Drop ship one in the corridor," announced Bishop.

As soon as the first drop ship was launched, the second one was moved into position above the inner doors, as before they opened and the ship was lowered into position. A minute after the drop ship one was launched; drop ship two was on its way.

Meanwhile, drop ship one had hit the outer atmosphere and the ionisation began as the heat built up on its hull while it decelerated towards the surface.

"Drop ship one on course, estimate landing in ten minutes," announced Bishop.

Ripley, who was now joined by Hicks, watched as the Bishop's ship descended to the surface. It was still dark where the ship was, however the glow from the heat of entering the atmosphere was clearly visible and suddenly, the horizon of LV426 could be seen as it approached the moons' sunrise.

It wasn't long before the clouds of the moon were clearly visible as the light increased. Ripley felt a touch of unease as these ships would be landing close to where the Nostromo landed some fifty eight years ago. It was bringing back bad memories and the sorrow of losing her crew and some good friends from back then.

Drop ship one broke through the cloud cover and the landscape was clearly showing signs of erosion from the water, there was clearly a small river flowing into a small lake. Bishop eased the ship down to one thousand metres and a speed of just under three hundred kilometres. He knew he would see the alien ship any second now and sure enough there it was. A large U shape ship, though part of it had broken away from the main part of the ship.

The ship was one of a species that as far as anyone on Earth knew, had not been encountered in any of the worlds and species that humankind had encountered. It was a unique configuration and its means of propulsion was not evident.

Bishop circled around and lowered his altitude and speed to get a closer look plus search for a good landing area for both his ship and the second drop ship that was rapidly catching up on him. It didn't take him long to spot a good flat area only about two hundred metres from the ship and switched on the ships' homing beacon for the second ship and began the landing cycle.

The ship was eased the last five hundred metres to the ground and Bishop executed a perfect soft landing. Within a minute the second ship appeared and Beck followed suit landing fifty metres beside Bishops' ship.

"Drop ships one and two both safely on the ground," was the announcement to a bit of cheer around the Sulaco.

Dr Phillips looked to his colleagues from their vantage point in the ship.

"Well, now the work really begins, Lieutenant, activate the C41's," he ordered.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

On the drop ships, the doors opened on both sides of the ships and the C31's were extended out over the surface as they were attached to a mechanical arm. Once fully extended, the C31's were activated with their bodies moving into an upright standing position as they were lowered to the ground, once their feet touched, they were disconnected from the extended arm which then retracted back into the drop ships.

Essentially, the C31's were the same as Bishop and Beck, but had not been fleshed out to give them a human appearance, just enough coverings to enclose all their mechanisms and neural nets. They could grip things with their hands and were a very useful tool as they could withstand extremes of environments that no human could tolerate without being damaged.

"This is one dash one reporting to Sulaco." said the voice of one over the transmitter in the ship.

"Dash one dash,' responded Dr Phillips, "proceed with initial surveillance of the ships perimeter.'

"Roger that," was the response.

In the ship, there were thirty separate monitors, one for each of the C31's and they were transmitting what each of the group of thirty C31's saw as they began the perimeter surveillance of the ship, or just a simple walk around. Ripley watched intensely from the control room.

"Anything look familiar?" asked Dr Phillips.

"I only saw the ship through Dallas's, Kane's and Lambert's monitors just like this Wayne, I was never near it." She responded.

"Oh, that's right, sorry."

"Don't be, it was fifty eight years ago, one thing though, we lost contact with them when they went into the ship, maybe you should make sure you don't have the same problem."

"I'll see to it, One Dash One."

"Yes Dr Phillips."

"One Dash One, Ripley has just informed me that they lost contact with her crew members when they ventured inside the ship, please insure we have a constant data stream when you explore the interior."

"Roger that."

The C31's continued their exploration around the perimeter of the ship, within around an hour they had completed it.

"Dr Phillips, One Dash One"

"Go ahead One dash One"

"We have surveyed the perimeter of the alien ship and have discovered six different entrances into the interior of the ship; we will place transmitter beacons inside the ship and then send in the drones to map the interior."

"Very good One Dash One, proceed."

"Roger that."

The C31's then retrieved small transmitter antennas and proceeded to place them just inside the ship where the entrances were. The drones were then released and began to completely map the interior of the ship. The data was appearing on the monitors on the C31's had as well as those on the ship. It didn't take long for them to discover the engineer virtually fossilised in his control couch. This created a fair bit of excitement amongst the scientists on the Sulaco.

"I would really like to get a look inside that ship." said Dr Chavelli with excitement.

As the drones mapped the interior, the C31's moved inside the ship, placing more transmitter relays in strategic positions so there was a uninterrupted flow of data and communications from the interior of the ship. Soon the C31's were at the foot of the aliens chair, the vision as seen through their eyes on the monitors in the Sulaco just stunned everyone, even Ripley.

As they climbed up to investigate the fossilised remains Ripley quickly caught a glimpse of the massive exit wound caused by the embryonic Acid Blood as it burst out of the beings chest.

"Eight Dash Eight, please focus on the chest wound of the alien creature?" asked Dr Phillips.

"Roger that," came the reply and the C31 looked directly at it, and then began to explore it with his synthetic hand.

"It would appear Dr Phillips that something burst from the chest of this poor unfortunate being, death would have been instant."

Ripley was going a little white and grasping at her chest as the memory of Kane overwhelmed her a bit.

"That would appear to be the case," responded Dr Phillips, "I want you and two others to examine the alien being for a while."

"Roger that."

"Dr Phillips, Thirteen dash Thirteen."

"Yes Thirteen dash Thirteen."

"There is an entrance point to a lower level of the ship do you wish to send the drone down there?"

"Yes Thirteen dash Thirteen."

"Roger that.'

One of the drones was then bought back and then manoeuvred through the opening to the lower chamber; the results of the mapping were coming through on the monitors on the Sulaco. Suddenly, shapes that were on the floor of this level became apparent and Ripley recognised the shapes straight away.

"Eggs, the eggs." She said.

"Thirteen, dash Thirteen, take a team down into that level and investigate, get the drone to magnify it's mapping by a factor of four."

"Roger that"

The drone magnified it's surveillance by a factor of four giving a much more detailed map of the area. The shape of the eggs was clearly visible and they numbered in the hundreds. It even showed the three that had opened one for Kane, one for Newts father and the third the Queen that opened for the second victim from Hadleys' Hope.

The C31's made their way to the foot of the lower level, and the people on the Sulaco saw the hundreds of eggs stretch out before them. They also showed the luminescent mist that hung just above them. The C31's crossed this mist, but there was no reaction as the C31's were not organic in any way.

"Dr Phillips?"

"Yes Thirteen dash Thirteen."

"The luminescent mist is electrically charged in some way and is connected to the eggs, if an organic being comes in contact with the mist, it must be a trigger for the eggs to hatch."

"Interesting, we'll test that theory with the organics later on."

"Roger that, also Dr Phillips, there appears to be two objects down here the drone has picked up, one in grid reference 31 dash 14, the other grid reference 37 dash 12, I am sending Ten dash Ten and Fifteen dash Fifteen to investigate."

"Very good"

They turned to the monitors of those two C31's with Ten dash Ten coming to his grid reference first. What they saw was what would have been the skeletal remains of a Queen Acid Blood on the far side of the egg field.

Dr Phillips turned to Ripley and Bishop, "A Queen?"

"Yes," responded Ripley.

"She must be a big bad ass mother fucker."

"You have no idea," responded Ripley.

Meanwhile Fifteen dash Fifteen reached his co ordinates and at first there seemed to be nothing to see, but then something appeared between two parallel panels that pushed out about a metre from the chambers floor and the C31 bent down and picked it up. What appeared shook everyone in the Sulaco as it appeared to be a human head, but with part of the outer skin removed revealed a metallic skull, with blonde hair and dead staring blue eyes?

"My God," said Dr Phillips, "that must be David."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

So many questions were going through the minds of the people on the Sulaco with the biggest one being of course how did a human androids' head get on that alien ship. Here was part of a near one hundred year mystery staring back at them, lifeless, with its' secrets maybe lost forever.

"Fifteen dash Fifteen, what is the condition of the head?" asked Dr Phillips.

"Dr Phillips, it is damaged; some of the external skin is missing as you can see, but it appears the head came off the body cleanly. I will inspect the internal workings, yes, yes, it appears the internals seem structurally sound."

"Do you think you can revive it?" asked Dr Phillips.

"I will return to the ship and attempt to Dr Phillips."

"Good, to the others, see if you can find the body?"

"Roger that" replied the other C31's.

It didn't take long for Ten dash Ten to find something, Dr Phillips and the others saw the remains of some clothing and melted bits of metal, which they concluded was part David's body.

"Dr Phillips," said Ten dash Ten, "it would appear that the majority of David's body has melted due to coming into contact with the blood of the alien creatures."

"Yes it would appear that, continue with your reconnaissance."

"Roger that."

Dr Phillips then turned to the group, "We'll see if we can revive David's head and try and get some answers before we begin with the biologicals."

There was a general nod of agreement with the crew and some anticipation regarding finding out what actually happened to the Prometheus.

It took Fifteen dash Fifteen around ten minutes to return to the drop ship, it carefully secured David's head on the repair bench before securing the necessary equipment to attempt to revive his head.

The C31's had remarkable dexterity in their hands and fingers and were able to perform delicate tasks as good as any human hand. They could self-repair or repair each other if needed from these drop ships being fully self-sustaining for as long as the mission required. Unfortunately for David, there was no replacement body for him, but power could be restored to his head and hopefully, there would be no internal damage to his CPU and higher brain functions.

From the Sulaco, they watched on the monitor receiving Fifteen dash Fifteen's images through its eyes as he connected the power supply to David's head. The plug had remained unchanged over the years for all robots and androids; it was a basic universal connection.

They also watched as the C31 connected the HDMI into his data input and output sockets and connected them to the drop ships computer. This was in case they couldn't get his head to function on full power but may have been able to download information from his neural CPU into the ships' computer and piece together what happened to him.

"Ready to commence power up," announced Fifteen dash Fifteen to the Sulaco, "one percent power."

The flow of power began into David's head, there was no visible change, but Fifteen dash Fifteen could see the power was being accepted.

"Increasing to two percent."

Again, the energy flowed into David's head and it was successfully accepted.

"Three percent"

The C31 went in one percent increments to five percent, at which there was a small twitch in the corner of David's mouth. This was good and there were no faults being detected at this stage with David's systems.

"Increasing to Ten percent."

Some more twitching of the mouth, all was looking good and the C31 went to fifteen percent and everything was looking promising, but at fifteen percent he stopped for a few minutes to allow David's system's in his head to get accustomed to power again at this level.

"All systems are looking good increasing power to twenty percent."

Suddenly there was a flutter of David's eyelids and his eyes started to look like they were alive, instead of a cold dead stare, his lips moved slightly as his brain functions started kicking in, but still not enough energy to produce any sounds or real movement.

"Increasing to twenty five percent."

There were more signs of life, his near one hundred year old circuitry was handling the inflow of power well. For an android, there was a small back up battery in the head that can sustain brain function for months, but the main power came from the body. They were designed to ingest food and liquid that could sustain them indefinitely, though they also needed to recharge themselves with a direct connection to power once every few months.

"Increasing to thirty percent"

David, started to become aware at this level, his eyes just saw blurred images, his speech patterns weren't functional yet, but he wanted to talk.

"Okay Fifteen dash Fifteen, hold there for a few minutes and let his systems adjust to the power level." Said Dr Phillips.

"Dr Phillips?" asked Dr Charelli.

"Yes Dr Charelli," he replied

"Dr Wilson and I are ready with the biologicals, should we commence?"

"Yes, yes by all means,"

Dr Charelli and Dr Wilson then contacted the C31's and gave the word to activate the biologicals. Form Fifteen dash fifteen's eyes they could see the pens the biologicals were in open and these ungainly masses of flesh step out and commence their awkward walk out of the drop ship towards the alien craft.

The C31's had complete control of them as all their brains were simply a reception device for their operators. They would simply walk to wherever they needed to go and stop. They were primarily used to test things that use to be tested on animals back on Earth, but animal experimentation had become a political pariah over the last one hundred and fifty years and was banned. These were genetically created so they could be infected with diseases, test drugs, side effects on cosmetics, everything and there was no moral outrage over it.

"Permission to go to forty percent Dr Phillips?" asked Fifteen dash fifteen.

"Yes, proceed at your discretion."

"Increasing power to forty percent"

Again, more signs of life, and a sound, garbled and quiet, but the first sound from David's mouth for nearly a century. This was encouraging and the team on the Sulaco were getting excited that David would be revived.

"Fifty percent power."

David, was now becoming more aware, his vision was becoming more focused and he could see he wasn't in the alien ship anymore, but his vocal chords and brain functions didn't have enough power to start talking. However, his CPU now had enough power to start transmitting some basic data to the drop ships computer.

"Increasing to sixty percent"

David tried to speak, but the sound was unintelligible, more like a low mumble like a record played at way to low a speed.

"Increasing to seventy five percent"

David's eyes could now focus; he saw the details of the drop ship and the robot working on him. He could move his eyes, which everyone watching the monitor on the Sulaco could see, but he couldn't move his head and he was now able to remember that his head had become separated from his body again.

"WWWhhhheeeereee ammmm IIIII?" he said, again in low frequency slow voice.

"Increasing to eighty percent."

Again David asked in a voice closer to his own, "Whherree aamm II?"

Fifteen dash fifteen then placed a communications device on his head.

"David, this is Dr Phillips on the Colonial Marine Spacecraft the Sulaco in orbit above you, were just going to restore your head to full power first and then we'll explain."

"OoKKaayy"

"Increasing power to ninety percent, all systems are looking good."

"I'm feeling good" remarked David in almost his usual voice, "please proceed to one hundred percent."

"Power to one hundred percent."


End file.
